M. Darly
The Accomplis'd Maid, [Pub by M Darly 39 Strand May 28. 1778]
Copper engraving with hand colouring
31 x 22 cm
£ 750.00
A caricature depicting a fat old maid with a large nose at a piano in a drawing room, playing and singing in profile to right. Elaborately dressed and wearing a...
A caricature depicting a fat old maid with a large nose at a piano in a drawing room, playing and singing in profile to right. Elaborately dressed and wearing a wig with ribbons and flowers, her natural hair sticks out from under. Pictures hang on the walls, a mirror and bookshelf behind, a chair with and embroidery frame to the left and an open cabinet with sheet music and books on the floor below the piano marked Cottlio[n], New Songs. and Scotch Airs. The joke is that the woman remains unmarried despite her accomplishments due to her looks. Matthew Darly (c.1721-c.1792) was a British caricaturist, printseller, publisher, and ornamental engraver. In 1759, he married his second wife Mary (fl.1759-1792), also a caricaturist and printseller, who wrote and illustrated the first book on caricature drawing, A Book of Caricaturas, 1762. The Darlys worked together and independently, and by 1756, they had print shops in Fleet Street and the Strand. Most of their prints were engraved in a very similar style and, to complicate attribution, have a publication line of 'M.Darly', so differentiation between them is often difficult. Mary's plates were predominantly satires and caricatures, whereas Matthew, in addition to caricatures, was also a jobbing engraver and stationer, producing everything from topography to trade cards. BM Satires undescribed
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